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Hurricane Harvey Getting Closer to Louisiana

Deadly hurricane Harvey is moving closer to Louisiana on Tuesday and is expected to bring more floods. Emergency evacuation is already underway and President Trump is expected to survey the devastation in Texas. He will be visiting Corpus Christi and Austin on Tuesday and has pledged to provide immediate relief to the areas that are affected by Harvey. This also marks the 12th Anniversary of the massive hurricane, Katrina that affected Louisiana badly on the 29th of August in 2005.

According to official reports, nine people have already lost their lives, but the number could rise after several reports of people being lost in the hurricane were reported from the affected areas since Friday. One man had drowned in Montgomery County after he tried to swim across the flood that was moving fast. Friday, the rainfall had already reached 43 inches in south Houston and about 40 inches in the nearby areas.

In Houston, the rainfall has already surpassed the annual average rainfall for the area of 49.77 inches and had reached 50.16 inches since the 1st of June. In Louisiana, rescue teams were working and evacuated hundreds of people near the Lake Charles areas after it flooded the area. New Orleans is also under watch and the tornados could hit it by Thursday. The National Hurricane Center reported that Harvey was moving towards the northeast and its center will be near the middle and upper Texas coast and Louisiana as well. The department of Labor approved a grant of $10 million to help clean the areas in Texas that are affected by the hurricane.

Thousands of people have already reached shelters in Houston and other areas. Most were still unaware as to when they could move back to their homes. The George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston had already provided shelter to around 9,200 people, Tuesday morning. With the center's capability of 5000 people with more people expected to come in the next few days. Most of the air evacuations are also being done in the convention center. Bus evacuations; on the other hand, are being diverted to other shelters near the city.

Authorities are being questioned about their response time and most feel that they should have evacuated Houston when there was time. The authorities have recommended people to go to shelters rather than leave the city and this is resulting in the shelters being full. Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott said that there is no point in talking about the past decisions and they need to think about what should be done now.